Sexing the Cherry

It was with a little trepidation that I approached this month's Slaves of Golconda read, Jeanette Winterson's  Sexing the Cherry.  I don't always work well in the abstract; it's generally a struggle for me.  Give me a nice straightforward story any day of the week and I'm happy.  I mean what do I do with a story where Winterson "fuses history, fairy tale, and metafiction into a fruit...of memorably startling flavor" (so says the NYT)?  I must say that in this case I was pleasantly surprised.  It was all so wonderfully over the top, completely outrageous (at least that's how it felt when reading it) that it was sort of thrilling to read something so different than what I'm normally used to.  What Winterson does with language is marvellous, but what I liked most were the visual images she created.  It was at times completely far fetched, but at the same time so totally vivid I found myself lost in the story (but in a good way).  Where does someone get the imagination to do that?

This is a very slim novel, but chock full of action and imagery.  In 1630 an infant boy is fished out of the Thames River by the Dog Woman.  It seems only fitting that he should have an appropriate name but neither Thames nor Nile will do.  So Jordan it is.  Now the Dog Woman once had a name, but she's forgotten it.  She's an interesting character, a giantess who breeds dogs (thus her name) and can outweigh and unseat Elephants (I imagined an elephant sitting on a seesaw type seat and when the Dog Woman sat down on the opposite end the elephant flew into the air) and has pox marks on her face so large that they provide a home for fleas.  She's a lusty character full of life and a die-hard Royalist (must say here I felt a bit bad for the Puritans).  As disturbing as her appearance may be, don't be fooled, she's a mother with a mother's caring heart. 

Jordan and the Dog Woman take turns narrating the story, which is like one of those Chinese boxes that folds in on itself and can be opened and righted once again.  The Dog Woman is firmly grounded in the reality of the 17th century set against a background of the tumultuous and bloody Civil War, while Jordan travels through time and space telling us of the fanciful and fantastic.  The story really is part historical fiction, and fairy tale, as well as a meditation on time and space with a fair amount of philosophy thrown in as well.  Winterson is obviously interested in accomplishing a variety of things, and no doubt this can be read from various viewpoints and on different levels-- including ecological and feminist (and maybe even a few others).  I imagine this must be a veritable feast for a literary critic or an English major, but since I'm neither I just enjoyed the colorful ride and will leave the peeling back of layers to the professionals.

Some of the scenes really stuck me and I think will stick with me for some time to come.  Jordan attends a dinner party where the family wouldn't allow their feet to touch the floor.  So looking through doors you see no floors but bottomless pits with furniture "suspended on racks from the ceiling." 

"To dine here is a great curiosity, for the visitor must sit in a gilded chair and allow himself to be winched up to join his place setting.  He comes last, the householders already seated and making merry, swinging their feet over the abyss where crocodiles live.  Everyone who dines has a multiplicity of glasses and cutlery lest some should be dropped accidentally.  Whatever food is left over at the end of the meal is scraped into the pit, from whence a fearful crunching can be heard."

There is also a city that floats above in the clouds.

"The city, being freed from the laws of gravity, began to drift upwards for some 200 miles, until it was out of the earth's atmosphere.  It lay for a while above Africa and then began to circle the earth at leisure, never in one place for long, but in other respects like some off-shore island.  The citizens had enormous poles made to push themselves off from stars or meteors, and in this way used their town as a raft to travel where they wanted.  They did not know it, but when every person pushed with their pole, they created a vacuum that sucked up anything in its wake.  The force was very powerful, and all over the world there are stories of entire picnics that have disappeared from checked tablecloths, and small children who have never been seen again."

As you can see this is a very playful story and in many instances laugh out loud funny.  It's not a book that's really very easy to write about as there is simply too much going on.  If you're still curious to know more, however check out the excellent posts here to get some other perspectives.  If you've read Sexing the Cherry please feel free to join our discussion.  I think I may have to check out Jeannette Winterson's other work.  

Comments

[Darlene]

Wow! Did you have weird dreams while reading this book? Sounds like fun.

[Danielle]

Darlene--This was a fun read--something completely different than I would normally pick up and read. There are actually some violent scenes, so it's no wonder I didn't have eyeballs rolling around my head when I was sleeping (the Dog Woman squeezes out the eyeballs of Puritans---this sounds terrible out of context, well, even in context it's terrible). But most of the images were just extremely inventive!

[Dorothy W.]

Isn't Dog-Woman great? She's my favorite part. Her violence is pretty horrible, and yet she's such an appealing, likable, understandable character -- nice how Winterson pulls that off! Yes, her writing really is a feast for critics, although I think that is where I went wrong with her -- she's too closely associated with things I don't like about grad school.

[Danielle]

Dorothy--I think this is one case where not knowing too much about Winerson and this type of writing worked to my benefit. I didn't know what to expect and really haven't been exposed to this sort of writing so could just read it on a basic level for pleasure, though I am very interested in what everyone else has to say about it.

[Isabel]

Did Dog Woman complain about the dirty conditions in London? Is this the ecological musings that you mentioned?

Sounds interesting!

[BooksPlease]

How surreal! I think the violence maybe put me off it though?

[Sarah]

Like yourself Danielle, I was pleasantly surprised by this book and its humour. I wouldn't like to analyze it, but I did enjoy it as a series of vivid, visceral and surprising stories. I look forward to reading more by Winterson!

[JoAnn]

This sounds like it would be waaaay outside my comfort zone, too, but I'll look at it anyway next time I'm in the bookstore. It may be fun!

[Danielle]

Isabel--There really weren't a lot of details about place, though the Dog Woman didn't seem particularly refined if you know what I mean. The book was set in past and present, and the ecological stuff came in the present. It was an odd story really.
BooksPlease--Surreal is a good word for it actually. The violence was only in parts and I thankfully. While it was a little gruesome I think she was using it to make a point. Strange as it sounds it sort of worked with the story.
Sarah--This is the first time in a long time when I have laughed at something I've read in a novel. It was a fun, quirky story and I'd like to read a few others by her as well.
JoAnn--Yes, this was certainly outside my comfort zone as well, but sometimes it's nice to shake things up! It's definitely worth a look next time you're at the bookstore.

[Matt]

I read a review of this book a while ago and wasn't sure how I'll take on it. It was like some journey in a space-time flux: across the seas to find exotic fruits such as bananas and pineapples; and across time, with glimpses of "the present" and references to Charles I of England and Oliver Cromwell. It does sound very payful, and fun to read. I'll put this on my list! :)

[Danielle]

Matt--It is an unusual book, and the group I read it with had mixed feelings about it. But it is so unlike the books I usually read I liked it--it was so different and playful. I'm not sure I could read a steady diet of books like this, but I would like to try some of her other books at some point. I look forward to hearing what you think about it!